Reddit reviews God's Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible
We found 7 Reddit comments about God's Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
When you say orthodoxy I assume this is Eastern Orthodoxy.
Before getting into the problems with Eastern Orthodoxy or the most compelling evidence for Reformed theology, let’s first understand what Christianity is.
I think the best place to start is the gospels. What are your daily habits like? Maybe read the Gospel of John, or re-read it, and try to understand what the author is saying in each passage and how he brings it together and what he’s trying to tell the audience, i.e. you. (John helpfully states his purpose in John 20:31, which is why it’s a good book to read both for those exploring the Christian faith and those who need to continue believing.)
The gospels contain the words and life of Jesus, and Jesus himself reiterates throughout John how important and life-giving his words are. Take the example of Martha and Mary, where Martha was working away and complains about how Mary doesn’t help her. Jesus says Mary chose the better option, by simply sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him.
How, ultimately, are you going to settle on an answer to this? Not from Reddit answers, though they may be helpful and point you in the right direction, but from listening to Jesus himself! And Jesus’ words can be found in the gospels, and in the whole Bible. The Bible is a wonderful compilation of books written by many people over centuries for different contexts and audiences and purposes, but they all tell one unifying story of God acting through history to save his people, and all of it is God’s word. Prayer is just as vital, and we want to be asking God to help us listen to him in his word and understand him clearly, that he would change us through it and think deeply about what he’s telling us.
So I hope that introduces some foundations for our discussion. The centre of our faith is Jesus. And we’ll have greater clarity by knowing Jesus better. And how do we know Jesus better? Through his words, which we have in our Bibles.
The Reformed tradition upholds supremely the Bible as our means to hear God and know what he wants for us. I think this is absolutely right, and I think if we read the Bible itself we will get a similar impression from God of what he thinks of his Scriptures.
The Eastern Orthodox Church upholds the Scriptures, but also greatly treasures, to the point of being divinely inspired, Holy Tradition.
But how do we really know what ‘tradition’ is? Or what the right tradition is?
If there was only one Church claiming to be the original apostolic Church passed down through tradition this may help a little, but there are others. Most prominently of course is the Roman Catholic Church, which claims that Tradition and the early church fathers would actually uphold the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, over the rest of the bishops, and as such they are the true apostolic Church. This doesn’t even get started on all the other issues the early church fathers would disagree on.
We can easily get lost in the weeds here, and theologians and historians can argue over this forever... they’ve been doing it for centuries! How on earth are we meant to arrive at the right conclusion?
Well, let’s go back to the foundation of our discussion. Jesus. Listening to him in the Bible. What does he have to say? What does he think salvation is? Is it by trusting in him and his sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and nothing else? Are there good deeds involved to also merit our salvation? And what about all the things Orthodox Tradition introduced that have no explicit existence in Scripture? Should we pray to the saints?
I think the Bible has very clear answers. And we could go into those further if you’d like. But let’s try and clarify that the Bible is our go-to, and all traditions, including the Reformed one, can be helpful but will always be fallible and subservient to the authority of God’s very words.
I can go on and say Reformed theology has the biblical view of salvation - that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus by his grace alone, and the biblical view of God’s sovereignty, and the biblical view of how we relate to God.
But how are you going to test that? It’s easier said than done, but to keep going to the Bible and seeing what God has to say through the human authors of the text.
Some good resources (other than the Bible, and of course having no authority in themselves unlike the Bible, and should be tested by it!)
Dig Deeper by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach
https://www.amazon.com/Dig-Deeper-Tools-Understanding-Gods/dp/1581349718
The above is a really helpful toolkit to read the Bible for ourselves. It contains a number of different ‘tools’, like the ‘context’ tool, and other tools to understand and digest a text and unearth the treasures that God has for us in them.
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
https://www.amazon.com/Knowing-God-J-I-Packer/dp/083081650X
The above is an absolute classic that richly and clearly illustrates who God is and how we can know him.
God’s Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts
https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Big-Picture-Tracing-Storyline/dp/0830853642
The above explains God’s incredible narrative throughout the entire Bible. Very helpful to understand what the Bible is all about.
Here is a good visual of Gerhardus Vos' two age eschatology:
http://learningandlivingtheword.com/documents/twoagemodel.pdf
Lots in this book as he outlines the development of God's kingdom through the Bible:
https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Big-Picture-Tracing-Storyline/dp/0830853642
Here is the most compact summary of covenant theology I have come across:
https://imgur.com/a/YHEJb
Edit 1:
Here is a good one on Christ's Humiliation and Exaltation: http://apostles-creed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/exaltation-humiliation-1024x617.gif
This one is okay - Its the work of the Triune God in salvation: http://apostles-creed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/trinity-salvation-saving-grace-plan-1024x617.gif
Christ's threefold office: http://apostles-creed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/prophet-priest-king-1024x617.gif
These books helped me to get my bearings right when I look at a particular passage in the Bible. I now ask questions like, "Where is this passage in relation to the redemptive history?" and "How does this OT passage point to Jesus?"
I'd recommend this book -- short SUPER easy read that helps explain the different genres in the Bible, and how the different pieces fit together.
> There seems to be some marked differences between the God of the old testament and new testament.
There is a discipline called 'Biblical Theology', which shows that the Bible is one whole narrative with recurring themes throughout.
If you want to see how the Old and New Testaments fit together, this is a good direction to take.
If you'd like to explore this (which I think you should), here are some worthwhile starting resources:
If you feel that you want some more materials on this topic which are more in-depth, please let me know as I am happy to direct you to them.
Edit If you have a look at the Don Carson video series you'll notice in the top right corner a 'courses' button, which gives access to a large range of great teaching on many important topics. This includes foundational materials, doctrine, church history, practical issues and teaching on every book of the Bible. I heartily recommend all of the materials produced on this website. End Edit
Some other resources I'd like to direct you to are some free ebooks by R.C. Sproul on fundamental topics. Crucial Questions will help you navigate through 28 important topics and help you get a good foundation.
>suggest a (roughly) two-month reading plan to get through the Old Testament? Ie, how much to read per day, in what order to read the books
I'd suggest reading one whole book at a go, i.e. finish reading Genesis either in one sitting, or in a few sittings. The Old Testament is such that you need the big picture before you can fully understand each part.
>recommend extra-biblical resources to help me understand the OT? I know the [1] Rose Book is a good one, any others?
I'd suggest two books. Graeme Goldsworthy's Gospel and Kingdom and Vaughn Roberts' God's Big Picture. Those two are very short and easy to understand books. These two books help you understand that the role of the OT is to point to Jesus, and gives you a very quick big picture and central message of the OT and thus the whole Bible. I'd highly recommend them first before you start your OT reading.
>give general advice/tips on how to make the reading time most productive/effective and not cause me to burn out?
Read the OT narratives as stories, rather than trying to do a Bible study on them every single time. You can do your bible study after you have finished reading it. :) Secondly, when reading wisdom books or prophecies, keep in mind the timeline of Israel and when it is written and the history behind it. It will illuminate the prophets for you, otherwise they'll be a mystery to you.
https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/proof-that-god-exists-faq.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Big-Picture-Tracing-Storyline/dp/0830853642
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/january/32.62.html
https://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/historical-and-scientific-proof-of-jesus-faq.htm
4 of my favorites. Jesus is probably the biggest factor for me. We all know Muhammed existed, but no proof of his prophethood. But for Jesus, the apostles continued their work after his "death". For me that is the largest proving factor.
And trust me, I know when someone is flaming and someone is not and i appreciate you for wanting to start an actual conversation